The newly rebranded Epcot International Festival of the Holidays kicked off just over 1 week ago, on 11/25. The “Holiday Kitchens” are open from 12pm – 8pm daily until December 30.

There are 14 different booths mostly spread across the World Showcase, with one near Test Track. Only 11 of these booths offer savory foods, as two are sweets only, and one only offers alcoholic beverages. There are also various items spread across existing locations, such as Joffrey’s kiosks and Refreshment Port.

Today we’ll be reviewing the first 2 proper food booths you’d hit while doing a counterclockwise lap around the World Showcase. I’m going in this direction because it’s the direction I recommend you go during your visit. You’ll see why in a moment. For the most part, we are only reviewing the food items, though there will be a few drinks mixed in. The cookies will be saved for a separate post.

Raglan Road is one of the few holdovers from the Downtown Disney era. Back in those days, Raglan Road was one of the only decent restaurants at Downtown Disney. It was nothing like today, where there is a good restaurant around every corner. I hadn’t been to Raglan Road in a couple of years, so I was worried it would pale in comparison to the now competitive restaurant lineup of Disney Springs.

Kim and I attended Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this past Friday. I’ll have a post covering the event in the next day or two. I wanted to start out by covering the newest event-within-an-event, as I’m sure you’re all looking for information to decide whether or not to attend this event yourselves.

I was really nervous leading up to our event, as there was little to no information available. Luckily, Josh over at EasyWDW came thru with a detailed review right before we left for the Party. I was able to breath a sigh of relief, not only because I had an idea of what to expect, but because Josh gave it high marks. Would we agree with Josh? Read on to find out!

The weather is finally starting to improve, so of course that means Food & Wine is nearing its end. We made our final visits this past weekend. It was our only visit of the year with nice weather. I didn’t have a single sweat stain on my shirt when I got home, can you believe it?

Today would be a mix of new items and last chance favorites. The items we enjoyed enough previously to sample again were:

We return to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival for our last special event of the year. I have wanted to attend the Mexican Tequila Lunch ever since I found out that was a thing. I love tequila, and have a decent selection on my bar at home.

The only reason it took this long to attend this event is that I don’t know anybody else that loves tequila. Kim totally hates it. So I decided that we would attend, and I would have to suffer and drink tequila for two!

The Mexican Tequila Lunch is held at La Hacienda de San Angel. The event was scheduled for 12:00 PM. And they really mean 12:00. They didn’t remove the rope blocking access to the restaurant until 12. We weren’t even allowed to sit on the benches outside. Promptly at 12, they removed the rope and escorted us inside. Once inside, you gave your name and were escorted to a table. Just like the French Family Traditions Lunch, you were assigned a table, but not a particular seat at the table.

When my wife and I first began attending the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot, we didn’t even know that there were all sorts of premium experiences taking place. We were perfectly content going from booth to booth, sampling the best each country had to offer.

Then one day we stumbled across a food seminar taking place in the festival center. After that, the floodgates opened.

Kim (my wife) has always been an avid watcher of Food Network and the like. And I am an avid eater of good food. So attending some of these events was a no brainer. For a few years we attended pretty much any event that featured a celebrity chef. It wasn’t long before we added the Party for the Senses to our yearly itinerary.

Last year we attended our first regional meal. We started small, with the Parisian Breakfast. That was a hit, so this year we decided to forego the Party for the Senses and add a couple of proper regional meals.

I had always been intrigued by the Mexican Tequila Lunch, so that was the first I booked. Look for that review in a couple of weeks. After that, we had to choose between Italian and French meals. Since we eat much more Italian Food in our day to day lives, we went French.

This event is held at the more upscale of Epcot’s two French restaurants, Monsieur Paul. Monsieur Paul is in the same building as Chefs de France, but on the second floor. The entrance is on the backside of the building, to the left of the entrance for L’Artisan des Glaces.

First things first. I am not a fan of Guy Fieri or Planet Hollywood. So when I heard this place was opening, I didn’t have high hopes. But then a funny thing happened. The first batch of reviews were pretty good! So we made our way to Disney Springs to try out Chicken Guy.

If you’re main reason for visiting Disney Springs is to go to Chicken Guy, you definitely want to park in the Orange Garage. The escalator on the east side of the garage will deposit you very close to Planet Hollywood, where Chicken Guy is located.

The exterior of Chicken Guy is pretty unassuming. But what do you expect for a chicken tender joint?

Posts navigation

About Me

Welcome to DestinationDoug.com. I’m Doug! This is where I share tips, tricks, photos, trip reports, reviews, and any other information I can get my hands on to help you plan your Central Florida (and beyond!) theme park excursion.